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February 23, 2004

Ani DiFranco & The Herd

Allow me to be indulgent and tell you about my weekend.

First of all, some chums and I went to see Ani DiFranco at the State Theatre. Absolutely fucking brilliant. I’ve been a huge fan of Ani for years, but have to admit to being a bit concerned by all the new fandangled music she’s been making with jazz leanings and not many hooks. Ani has now gone back to basic, just a gal and her guitar(s), and the result was an awesome concert.

She’s one of the best guitarists out there without question, and her voice is spot on every time. Old songs were received rapturously by the crowd, and new songs were stripped of any self-indulgence and just played the way they should have been - and they were great too.

Ani still sounds like she’s had a few spliffs before wandering onstage (many giggles and confused mutterings) but she’s incredibly charismatic and funny, and seemed to really bounce off the crowd. She also mentioned onstage her last trip out in Sydney, where her spoken word piece Self Evident got her ‘into trouble’.

I was at the concert she was referring to - a Bob Dylan concert at the Entertainment Centre where she was the support act - and remember vividly the crowd reaction when she launched into her attack on George W Bush, the war in the Middle East and the state of American politics altogether.

A large amount of people in the crowd began booing her, yelling abuse and Ani was visibly shaken by the reaction. The other half of the crowd - me included - cheered for her wildly, encouraging her to go on and finish the performance, and finish she did - and walked offstage. I thought it was fucking brilliant - even if the crowd are booing her, it means they heard what she said, and that’s something, isn’t it?

Anyways, my summary of the Ani concert would be that it was fantastic, amazing, and far too short for my liking - I could have sat there all night.

Lucky I didn’t, however, or else I would have missed out on seeing another performance full of passion and passionate political stances by The Herd at The Gaelic Club.

Our crowd of revellers decided to meet up with Magical Dunc, whose brother Simon is in The Herd, and after a few post-Ani, pre-Herd beers at The Strawberry Hills Hotel, we sauntered down the road to check them out. I’m very glad we did.

I’m not a hip hop kinda gal really, but the group definitely won me over. The biggest audience response came during their Triple J Hottest 100 placing tune 77%. With a chorus that goes “Wake up, this country needs a fucking shake up, wake up, these cunts need a shake up”, the song got the crowd going wild, and even I was singing it for hours afterwards. Great stuff.

If you can check out either Ani or The Herd, then do it - it’s well worth it.